Examples

Stratification?

Stratification is the formation, or system of forming layers, or categories, as shown in the pictures below.

How can the Age of Landforms be Estimated?

When trying to study landforms & how far they date back, you can easily find this out by the thickness/ type of rock or the types of fossils found in the layers. Rocks are formed many ways, and one way that creates layers is sediment building upon the bottom of a lake, or pond. Over time, this sediment will harden, & then the same process will occur. & very often, an organism could get into this process, & it gets stuck between the layers, and hardens, which makes it become a fossil. In a simpler way, this process is like building a cake, in which that you put separate layers onto the cake, & something could get stuck in the cake, like a it of an eggshell, or something could get stuck between the layers when you are trying to put them on. A way to figure out how old the layers are is by finding a key element that happened during the time period, like a volcano eruption. If you can figure out when a volcano erupted in the past, then everything underneath the volcanic ash, or dried magma, which is igneous rock, is before the eruption. Everything on top of it is after.

How can Older Layers of Rock be on top of Newer Layers?

There are many reasons for this to occur, one of them being a gap in the forming of layers. Say that when the sediment was forming into a layer, there was a gap in between the other layers. After this current layer of sediment forms, & when the next layer is in the process, it gets underneath the layer that just formed. Or an animal digs a hole in between layers, and the new sediment fills up the hole it dug.

How Have Organisms Shaped Landforms?

They have dug holes in the formed layers, which allows new sediment to follow into the hole after them.

Ecosystems

Desert: A barren area, which is dry, with extreme temperatures & scarce wildlife.

Prarie: Extensive flat or rolling area dominated by grasses.

Woodlands: Low density forest.

Rainforest: Forests with high rainfall, & many different species of plants & animals.

Tundra: Rare plants & low temperatures.

Defintions

Decomposer: Organism that breaks down materials such as plants or dead animals.

The worms were classified as decomposers.

Consumer: Organsim that eats other organsims.

Foxes are classified as consumers because they eat other animals, such as rabbits.

Ecosystem: "A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment."

Polar bears ofen live in colder ecosystems, such as Antarctica.

Producer: Organism that produces nutrients for itself, such as plants.

Producers are plants, such as sunflowers.

Food Chain: "A succession of organisms in an ecological community that arelinked to each other through the transfer of energy and nutrients,beginning with an autotrophic organism such as a plant andcontinuing with each organism being consumed by one higher inthe chain."

The start of the food chain begins with the sun, which often heads to plants, like grass, which then animals eat, and so on.

Biotic: Produced or caused by living organisms.

Animals, such as pandas or pigs or SYDNEY are biotic.

Abiotic: Nonliving/ characterized by the abscence of plants & animals.

Water, rocks, and other nonliving items are classified as abiotic.

Adaptation: Often occuring through natural selection, a species becomes better adapted to the environment for the better.

Animals use the process of adaptation to better fit in with their environment.

Biotic/Abiotic Factors

There are many biotic & abiotic factors that make up a wetland ecosystem, such as:

Biotic: Flowers, Trees, Any Species of Animal, Etc.

Abiotic: Water, Sunlight, Rocks & Minerals, Soil, Wind, etc.

Energy enters the ecosystem food chain in the form of sunlight.

The arrows in the picture above signify the energy tranfer. Bacteria go to shrimp/crabs, then goes to the ssnapper, and so on.

If one of these elements were taken out, it would cause a drastic change in the environment. So if the heron was taken out, then the population of snappers would increase, so they would need to eat more food, which would be the shrimp & crab. Then so many of these species would be eaten & their population would go down, and so on down the chain.

Wetland Answers

15. Wetlands filter out the runoff water, which prevents clogs in waterways, (etc.) to save a huge profit of money.

16. Wetlands act like the sponge of the ecosystem, which prevents floods & erosion in nearby lands.

17. Wetlnd plants hold the soil in their roots, absorb the energy of tthe waves that hit the shore (etc.) to prevent erosion near the coast from occuring.

18. Wetlands are suitable environments for many types of species, both plnats & animals. This includes endangered species such as otters.

19. Wetlands can grow many crops that will give us profit, such as cranberries. They can also produce a large sum of shellfish which results in a very large profit: 1.2 billion pounds=$244 million in 1991.